Rimini, a very ancient Etruscan-Celtic-Roman town, where in 49 B.C. the
Eagles of Julius Caesar started their imperial flight, where in 359 A.D.
a "diabolical" Council gave temporarily the Christian Church to the
heretical Arians, where in 1226 the Emperor Friedrich the 2nd
Hohenstaufen gave birth to the modern Germany with the Gold Bulle von
Rimini, where in 1300 Dante sang the everlasting tragedy of Paolo and
Francesca and in 1450 Sigismondo Malatesta started the Italian
Renaissance in 1944 was again in the focus of History.

25
Aug - 30 Sept '44

The
Battle of Rimini

"
Now we begin the last lap. Swiftly and secretly we have moved an Army of
immense strength and striking power to break the Gothic Line. Victory in
coming battles means the beginning of the end for the German Armies in
Italy." (Gen. Leese)

The Gothic Line (rechristened "Green Line" in June '44) was a fortified
line, running Km 320 from Pesaro on the Adriatic to Massa Carrara on the
Tyrrhenian sea., thick with Panther gun turrets, steel shelters, rock
tunnellings of defence positions, deep minefields, etc. From the left bank
of the river Foglia it had 2.376 machine-gun posts, 479 antitank guns,
mortar and assault guns positions, 120.000 metres of wire and many miles
of antitank ditches. Before there was a Security Line and behind, at 20
Km., the Gothic Line n.2. Alexander's offensive was launched by Churchill
himself. Its first phase, "the battle of Rimini", "the biggest battle of
materials ever fought in Italy", was one of the most crucial (and
unknown) battles of the 2nd World War, fought by 1.200.000 men and thousands of
guns, tanks and aircraft. It was a giant pincer manoeuvre fought by the
British 8th Army on the Adriatic and by the US 5th Army in the Apennines.
Against Rimini, already ruined by 92 air raids, the Allied Artillery fired
1.470.000 rounds (1.200.000 at El Alamein, 500.000 at Cassino), not
counting the British Navy and the German Artillery. The aircraft flew
11.510 sorties (486 only on Sept.18). Casualties until 21.09.1944 amounted
to around 80.000, civilians inclusive, and to more than 754 armoured
vehicles destroyed or damaged only in the Adriatic sector. In the whole
battle, casualties were around 100.000, Italians inclusive. (On 7 Oct.
Alexander assessed 30.000 allied and 42.000 German casualties) The battle
climaxed in the last days of September 1944. Breached the Gothic Lines.1
and n.2, captured Rimini gateway to North Italy and to the Balkans, cut
the German defences in the Apennines, Kesselring was menaced with being
surrounded. He felt to be defeated and asked Hitler twice to evacuate
Italy. The victory for the Allies was within grasp, but soon disappeared
when the Americans were stopped at Mount Battaglia. Kesselring, the winner,
was later rewarded with the command of the German Armies in the West.

According to the international official histories the real Gothic Line
offensive ends with the end of the battle of Rimini, on Sept. 30. The Germans prolong it to the end of October. According to us the "battle of
rivers" which followed until Jan. 6th, 1945 should be regarded as its 2nd
phase. Totally the casualties increased to around 200.000. The 2nd phase
went on by force of inertia. The Americans couldn't take Bologna and the
British had to stop at the river Senio (Irmgard Line).
Churchill admitted the failure of the offensive that cost Italy the
Istrian peninsula and Dalmatia, but pursued his Balkan plans with a
landing in Greece which denied the Mediterranean to the Russians.

2nd Phase. The Battle of rivers. Op.
Gelignite
and the landing in Greece

In October the Gothic Line offensive starts again with
" the battle of rivers' in preparation of the "Operation Gelignite" which
should have driven the Americans beyond Bologna whilst the British should
have landed in Dalmatia. But the Operation failed just before starting.
The Americans were stopped before Bologna and the British at the river
Senio, soon after the liberation of Forlì, Ravenna and Faenza. Tito withstood the British landings at Zadar,
Split and Sibenik. The British then landed in Greece whilst the Germans
ended the allied offensive with small counterattacks in the Tuscan
Garfagnana region and at Ravenna.The
Italian Campaign ended up months later with the final Spring Offensive (Operation
Grapeshot), with the partecipation also of Italian soldiers, regular and irregular. The Germans surrendered on April 28 and handed in all arms on
May 2.

The protagonists assesments:
"This campaign is a hard row to hoe. It is the most difficult country in
Europe, and yet we always get troops and equipment taken away from us for
elsewhere. We have done all the fighting on a very narrow margin of
relative strenghts".The battle of Rimini was "one of the hardest battles
of Eighth Army. The fighting was comparable to El Alamein, Mareth and the
Gustav Line (Cassino)". (Sir Oliver Leese)

The battle of Rimini "had been as bitter as El Alamein and Cassino". (Sir
Richard McCreery)

"On the Apennines, south of San Marino, was fought the biggest battle in
Italy: the names of Fano, Pesaro, Cattolica, Riccione and Rimini remain in
the history of war." ( Beelitz and Heckel, German H.Q., Bellaria, Summer
1945)

"The battle of Rimini, as characterised by concentration of material in a
confined area, will take its place in history as an example of a battle of
attrition in the grand style.. For the first time the German troops could
conduct defensive operations in a major battle as laid down in the German
manual "Field Service Operations" (Truppen Fuhrung)" (Col. Horst
Pretzell, German H.Q., Bellaria, Summer 1945)

"The battle of Rimini has been the biggest battle of materials fought in
Italy" (Schäffer & Wöbbeking in Gen. Joachim Lemelsen '29.Division')

"The battle of the Apennines is a famous page in the military history of
Germany". (Generalfeldmarschall Albert Kesselring, Commander Group of
Armies 'C', South-West)

"The XV Army Group performed a successful undertaking that surely has
never been exceeded.The Gothic Line was stormed by the American 5th Army
and by the British 8th Army." - (Retroversion from Sir Harold Alexander's
"Memoirs")

"Victories, like the taking of Rome and the storming of the Gothic Line
keep their name through the centuries." (Eric Linklater)

Opposite orders of
battle from Adriatic to Tyrrheniansea
- 25 august 1944